Every fisherman has a story…here are a couple from our week away:

~ Herb caught a 26″ Pike!

~ Calvin caught the biggest sunfish!

~ Eric loves to throw his fishing pole overboard!

~  Griffin caught a 3 1/2 lb Bass!

Put on your bathing suits!

My favorite ‘feature’ of the cottage is the little private beach that is only steps from our door!

After our arrival and unloading the van was complete the kids wanted to head over for a little dip!  Lisa & I headed to town to buy the groceries for the week! Our job is to cook and organize meals, H&J clean; (dishes & vacuuming) in my opinion it’s a great trade!

Here’s the kids getting ready…

Eric couldn’t figure out how to open the new glue stick.

I was on the phone (booking a new session!!!!) so I couldn’t help him out.  Patiently, I asked him to wait until I was done on the phone…

He was quiet for a long time, so I figured “Hey, he’s starting to get the concept of waiting until I’m done on the phone”…

NOPE, that wasn’t the case…I guess he figured it out!!!  He was just pouring the glue all over the place…what a mess…

Why not include your family pet in your pictures?  After all, they are part of your family, right?!

Here are a couple sessions I’ve done where animals have been included in the memories!

According to my Mother-In-Law, her gardens are in trouble when I move in!  I’m not that bad!  Gardening might not be my 1st passion, but I do like them to be pretty and tidy!

It’s always a pleasure to return home!

Fun to pick up the kids and hear about their fun weekend with Grandpa & Grandma!

Here is the big smiles we missed while we were away!!

These fries are SO worth the effort!  YUMM-O…

All you have to do is peel and slice potato’s.  You can use as many as you like, we just do the whole bag! (there were some leftovers, don’t worry) Rinse, then deep fry them till cripsy!  I’m not saying they are healthy, just saying they are delish!!!

In my opinion, they taste best with some mayo, ketchup and sprinkled with salt & vinegar.  (Although,  I did hear that vinegar isn’t great to drink-esp if you are expecting water!)

Here’s a picture of the whole gang working together to get supper ready!

A weekend away, a weekend of games, a weekend of scheming…

~Monopoly~Uno~Yatzee~Ladder golf (Testicle Toss)~Croquet~

~Wii (yeah, it’s a bit more that the average cottage)~

At most of these games Kevin tried to ‘sway’ the outcome/winner since it clearly wasn’t going to be him.  You might ask how would someone do that?  Don’t these games have rules?  Well, here is an example:

Let’s say you go through the first round on the Monopoly board, a decent amount of spaces are taken and you own a bare minimum of them.  You (Kevin) know that your odds of winning are slim to nil.  So, you decide to form a “corporation”, sell the couple properties you did own to another player (Nate) for a dollar.  YES, I said $1!  Then he (Nate) agreed to ‘look the other way’ whenever Kev landed on his properties.

These actions snowballed and by the middle of the game all the boys were on one side plotting and scheming… The girls continued to play as sole proprietors…

You might be wondering how did that work out for them?

Not good, Mel was the winner-I was runner up!

Proving: Honesty is the best policy!

(disclaimer: we really did have this much time on our hands since we were Kid FREE!  Thanks again to the ‘crazy’ Grandma & Grandpa)

Thank-you so much G&B for being a source of  encouragement to our family during our transition to farm life!

Visiting with you this morning was a great start to my holidays!